WEATHER RELATED ISSUES

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I've blogged!!  Our weather situation hit the national TV stations last night so I guess that is a blogable event.  Let me back up a bit....

Brad and Silvia flew in to Seattle on July 23 in order for Brad to be in a friend's wedding on the 25th.  After spending the weekend visiting with their friends, we felt fortunate that they wanted to spend time with us during the week while many of their friends were at work.  We had talked about driving to Victoria, BC for a couple of days but after investigating what the ferry costs were going to be just going and returning (over $200) we thought we could use that money more wisely by going to the coast for a few days.  We were lucky to find a suite at our usual place in Cannon Beach, Oregon, the Tolovana Inn, so headed down on Monday the 27th.  We knew Seattle was expecting temps in the upper 90's for 3-4 days and thought, what better place to be then on the coast where it doesn't get much higher than the upper 70's.  No thought went through my head that Portland's temps would be high and our favorite place on the Oregon coast would become everyone's favorite place on the coast!!

In route, we stopped in Portland at the Rose Garden in Washington Park.  Our GPS didn't know about Washington Park (neither did I) so we were directed first to another rose garden by Monique, our GPS wondergirl where we saw a children's playground with a very small assortment of roses.  After a quick lunch, we headed off again with the correct info and landed at the park.  There were a bountiful amount of roses but since the temps were around 100 by the time we arrived, it didn't put us in much of a mood to want to wonder around and smell the roses. 

A general view of what the garden looks like although this is just a small piece.  Below more specifics.

After arriving at Cannon Beach and getting checked in, Silvia had to put her toes in the Pacific, so off she went running into the ocean with wreckless abandon.....I think she made it up to her waist before heading back to her towel!!  Too bad we didn't get a picture of that.

On Tuesday, we fixed a heart healthy breakfast of biscuits and gravy with eggs and lots of wonderful fresh fruit and then headed south to Tillamook Cheese Factory.  On the way we stopped at our property in Manzanita to show the kids since they had not seen it.  We purchased this ocean view property about 6 years ago with the intention of moving here and building a home when we retired.  As the years have gone by we are having a difficult time making up our minds regarding whether or not we want to move here and go to the expense of building when we could much easier remain where we are and just visit for a month out of each year and probably come out further ahead financially.  I have concerns also in regard to the closeness and quality of medical facilities.  It has been a dream of mine to live by water however and that dream doesn't die easily so we'll see what happens in the next few years. 

Silvia had not been to Tillamook before and the rest of us wanted our ice cream fix.  Tillamook is inland from the coast and is about a 45 min drive from Cannon Beach.  Tillamook Cheese Factory sits on the northern end of Tillamook and is the facility for making cheese which is then delivered to many Pacific NW grocery stores.  Tourists can watch the assembly line of cheese being cut, wrapped and boxed and then can taste samples of the different varities of cheese plus purchase them as well as many other items.  Before you leave you have to have a dish or cone of ice cream however, which is the reason we always go!  Oregon Strawberry....yummm!

We arrived back at Tolovana Inn by 3 pm and headed to the beach.  It was enough to catch plenty of sun and get a little color to boot.

Some experimental shots trying to capture the sunshine on the water with Brad/Silvia.  Sort of fun....

The beautiful weather made way for a beautiful sunset both nights we were there and of course many others were in line to photograph as well.  After we returned down the beach from dinner, Carl took the series of shots below to capture the awesome sight...

We decided to enjoy a campfire and s'mores before we called it a night.  Brad and Carl experimented with the lighting trying to capture a good shot - the one below is quite grainy but the glow of the campfire on the following two turned out sort of neat.

On Wednesday morning, Carl and I got up and were out walking by 7:30 am.  The beach was fogged in so that you couldn't see too far in front of you.  As we continued to walk south toward Arcadia Beach however the sun was breaking through the fog and provided us with a nice picture. 

After our walk, we saw Silvia getting ready for a jog, so Carl joined her for a little jog down to Haystack Rock. We packed up and headed toward Astoria for a late morning breakfast at Pig N Pancake.  We arrived home around 3 pm with temps around 103 and needless to say I had a rather sleepless night.  Most people in the Seattle area don't have AC because it is generally not needed.  While looking on Facebook this morning I noticed that many of my friends are staying at hotels in downtown Redmond so that they can sleep at night.  It is pretty sad what a bunch of wimps we've become.  I don't remember growing up with AC in the midwest and I'm living proof that I survived yet now just want to run out of my skin to find somewhere cool!!!  Today is only suppose to be up to 100 so we've cooled down.  Temps won't be down to the 80's until maybe Sunday.....

Brad and Silvia are out the door to visit more friends for the evening.  We will see them in the morning for a little while before Silvia has to be with back with friends for a pre-wedding manicure/pedicure for the wedding she is bridesmaiding in on Sunday.  On Saturday they will take off for Poulsbo and spend the night.  Brad will fly out on Sunday for NY and Silvia will follow on Monday night.  Great memories built with this visit and we feel so blessed!!

 We were up at the crack of dawn this morning in order to get to the airport for our 5:15 am flight to Luxor.  I couldn't believe how many vendors were on the sidewalks this early in the morning selling hard boiled eggs and pita bread.  Many cafes were buzzing with early morning breakfast eaters as well.  Traffic was plentiful but we arrived at the airport in about 35 minutes as opposed to the hour it took us to get to the hotel our first night here.  Our flight was an hour so we arrived in Luxor around 6:15 am.

We have several things planned today.  Our first being a drive to the Valley of the Kings.  This drive takes us an hour but as we head to the eastern part of the valley, time goes by quickly with all the things there are to see.  We pass by green fields that represent small farms. 

They are growing sugar cane, cauliflower, huge cabbages and green beans as well as some cotton.  They make molasses from the sugar cane and mix some of it with tobacco for smoking.  We notice many people dressed in traditional garb of flowing cotton shifts with headdresses.  Many of the Muslim ladies are wearing burkas.

Transportation was interesting as well.  We saw Muslim ladies covered head to foot driving carts pulled by donkeys loaded with vegetables, to scooters hauling children to and from school, to bicycles, to people riding donkeys and camels.  We would see people on the two lane road standing in one of the lanes sweeping dirt!  All of the drivers watched out for them but it was interesting to see what a clean, green beautiful area Luxor was compared to the busyness of Cairo and the trash which abounded in the canals.

The orange you see at the left of the picture are carrots going to market.

Another interesting site.  Can you see the reed bars sticking out of the tops of these buildings?  Osama told us that in Egypt as long as the building you are constucting has these coming out you don't have to pay taxes because it means that you haven't completed the building, house, etc yet.  The assumption is that you have one more floor to add! We saw building after building like this!!

  The weather is cool but sunny.  Osama wants to start our tour early in the day due to the heat which will be coming shortly.  We arrive at our destination with rugged mountainous terrain --all rock and no vegetation.  This huge area is known as the Valley of the Kings and encompasses a western valley and eastern valley. Before we get to the area with the tombs we stop briefly at what was called Memnon Colossi.  The huge statues below are the only part that remains today of the ancient mortuary temple built in Thebes (Luxor) by Amenhotep III.  Several floods have wiped out the other ruins so all that remains are these statues and the soil. 

Let me just say that while we are looking at all of these things, I don't have a clue who any of these people were and I hardly understand their names unless I ask Osama to spell them for me.  I know nothing about Egyptian history so I'm not even sure about all of the dynasties that he tells us about.  So for me, all of these things that we see or have seen in Egypt are amazing due to the age, the color in the hieroglyphics that are in the decor, and the massiveness of the structures.

One thing that modern Luxor has for their tourists are balloon rides.  As we are heading for the Valley we see 20 or so balloons against the mountains that are just beautiful.  They carry baskets that hold 20 people or so.  More people than what I would want to be with in a basket but more money to be had in less time.  These balloon trips leave very early in the morning and since we were getting to our site around 8 am these balloons were getting ready to land.

The eastern Valley of the Kings is a hilly area with a path winding down through the valley and offshoots of this valley path lead into mountains on both sides where the door to a tomb has been uncovered.  Actually the doors that we go through as we visit three of the tombs were not the original entrances to the tombs.  The real doors of the tombs would have been buried under the rocks making them very difficult to find. 

The construction of one of these tombs could take up to six years to construct.   The engineers would have begun a project at the coronation of a new king.  Interesting way to start your rule, don't you think?  There are 63 tombs that have so far been discovered.  Most of the tombs have a similar structure.  There is a long hallway to the first chamber where gifts for the deceased were left.  You move on to the room then that held the mummified body in a sarcophagus made from either granite, wood or stone.  The fascinating thing to me was the amount of decoration and the color that has lasted on the walls for 3-4000 years.  Picture stories in hieroglyphics were on the walls, ceilings, and all over the sarcophagus.  Osama could read them to us and tell us the story.  I can understand why it would take six years or so to complete these but I'm not sure if they were started when the king was crowned how they would know what stories to put on the walls....so maybe they waited until he died to complete and update their stories???

An interesting side note - when we first arrived at the valley and went through the gate, Osama told us that we couldn't take in video cameras, we had to check them in at the gate.  Since we didn't have a video camera we didn't worry about it.  The first tomb we entered didn't have any signs posted about no photography so we entered the tomb and about halfway down the hallway to get to the first chamber, Carl started to take a picture of the wall.  A hand reached out and snatched his camera.  When Carl started to protest the man looked at him with daggers in his eyes and put his finger to his lips as if to say SHHHH!!  Carl just wanted him to turn the camera off but there was no communicating with this guy.  He slipped the camera in his robe pocket and then indicated in sign language that we might get it when we left.  I was thinking about the 700+ pictures we had already taken in Israel and was wondering if we would ever see them or if we would have to beg pictures from all of our friends on the trip!  We were both a little anxious until we exited the tomb.  There Carl tried to retrieve the camera but it wasn't until Osama came to our aide and paid the guy off that we got our camera returned.  All the other tomb entrances that we entered had 'No Photo' signs posted.  Almost made you believe that there was a scam going on.  Sue Earls from our group had the same thing happen to her earlier except I believe the guy threatened to have her arrested!!  One member of our group however managed to get a photo without anyone noticing!!  Thanks Alex!

Another interesting thing going on at the time of our visit was the excavation of a newly found tomb.  It had been found 2 weeks prior to our visit and below the pictures show the way the site is being excavated - human labor- one bucket of rocks at a time.  Each man in his long robe with turbaned scarf carrying a metal bucket of rocks on his shoulder balanced next to his head, emptying the rocks into a truck on the main path and then returning for another load.

It is a little difficult to see but the guy below has the fun job of trying to gather different pieces of a pot or vase and put the puzzle pieces together!!

It was beginning to get a little warm - maybe in the lower 70s and I could see how this valley could become an oven in the summer!  Our next stop was the Queen's Temple or The Temple of Deir El-Bahri.  A little history that I got off the web because I just couldn't write down everything Osama told us about his place.  This temple was built for Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC).  As the story goes, she was married to one of her half brothers, Thutmose II and when he died she was appointed regent.  Thutmose III, the future pharaoh, was the son of another of Thutmose II wives.  When Hatshepsut had herself declared pharaoh, Thutmose III never forgave her and when she died he had her shrines, statues and reliefs mutilated.  This temple is known for its design and decoration.  It was built of limestone, not sandstone, to commemorate her achievements and to serve as a funerary temple for her.  Osama told us that she was the first female Pharaoh and many couldn't see having a female be in that position so she hid her identity for a long time.  The statues that are present show a man's build, typical kilt, beard and headdress of a male king.  I couldn't find anything regarding that issue when looking on line so I'm not sure how true that is.

As we left this place and had to pass through a little tourist bombardment of vendors on our way to the van it just reminded me of what Brad used to say, "Mom, they have to eat too!" 

We left this site and headed to our hotel.  We've been up since 2 am and wanted to get to our hotel to unload our stuff and freshen up a bit before heading to lunch.  The Hotel Mercure was pleasant enough - we had a garden view but the hotel is located across the street from the Nile so on our way in and out we could see the cruise boats.  This is a resort area and a popular place for Europeans.  I noticed people settling into the lounge chairs by 9 am and pretty much staying there all day.  Shot below of the pool area.

After getting settled in, Osama suggested that we have lunch at an outdoor restaurant with a beautiful view of the Nile and the river cruise boats. It was just around the corner from where we were staying so we walked.   It was typical food fare but a beautiful day with wonderful people made it a great day!

Left -Charlie, Julie, Derek  Right-Sue, Pat, Robin and Stephen standing

After lunch Osama walked with us to the town area where the Bazaar was located.  He gave us an hour or so to make our way from one end to the other before meeting us at the other end at an outdoor cafe. 

Since we've entered Egypt we've been aggressively approached at every possible opportunity by someone wanting to sell us something.  I was amazed at the number of children on the street selling things, mostly postcards and scarves.  They look at you with those darling faces and big brown eyes - they all have very creative parents!!!  Let's get those kids started off right and soon....  Carl bought a T-shirt after a little negotiating.  There wasn't much else that we were interested in buying especially with all the hassles.  For me it is a very uncomfortable way to shop but for those of you who know me, I'm not much for shopping and spending money anyway!

We met Osama back at the little outdoor cafe and waited a few minutes for the remainder of the group to catch up.  When everyone was there Osama walked us back to the hotel via a shortcut.  It was an interesting shortcut through the back neighborhoods!  We watched a little CNN or Fox - we had usually one choice of an English speaking station and dozed until dinner at 7:30 pm.  Osama joined us for a nice dinner and conversation centering around his family.  He is a third generation tour guide which I thought interesting.  He learned all of this history at the knee of the father and grandfather.  Everyone at the table was having trouble staying awake so we excused ourselves after visiting a while and headed to bed.